For Exams We Slog
by htenywg
Summary: I throw the Gundam boys onto a little island somewhere in Asia, have them go to school for six months, and have them take exams, like everybody else. Rated for swearing, by the way.


Written in pre-exam frustration and stress. The exams are in 6 days, and I haven't covered much. And I'm still writing this. Yes, I know, my priorities are screwed. *hangs head in shame* However, due to my pissed off state of mind right now, this fic is highly ridiculous and sarcastic. Or satiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirised, as the ever omnipotent Do'lly would say.   
  
So. I throw the Gundam boys onto a little island somewhere in Asia, have them go to school for six months, and have them take exams, like everybody else. The problem is, the syllabus they're going to take is the same as mine, since it's the only one I KNOW, but technically they're eligible for a standard much higher than mine.  
  
However, that little problem was solved when I remembered that the Singapore government has the habit of throwing overseas students into standards much lower than Singaporean kids their age. It all depends. They're 15, right? Ok. They're two years older than I am. That's not too far off. And it's about right...  
  
It's dedicated to all my fellow sloggers. Meaning, everyone in Singapore who is between 10 and 83 years of age. Ever heard of lifelong learning? Yeah. My mum's studying too - Childhood Studies. My dad? He's taking a diploma in Business Management. Everyone else: English, Mother Tongue, Mathematics, Geography, History, just to name a few.  
  
Guh.  
  
So, may I present...  
  
bFor Exams We Slog/b  
  
(clapcheerstampfeetandreadoninexcitement. I wish, man.)  
  
For a few months now, the Gundam pilots hadn't had anything to do. So the scientists decided that, since they didn't have anything to do, they might as well have a little feel of what it was like being normal kids, going to school, taking exams, and so on so forth.  
  
Well, as well as improve their education, but that's a minor issue.  
  
Next was the problem was where to send them. The scientists decided to give them a really good experience, and by their book, a really good experience included giving them a really hard time.  
  
So, they decided on the tiny island of Singapore, somewhere in Southeast Asia, somewhere in the world, somewhere in the Milky Way... you get the point. Singapore's education system was known locally as quite strict, was known internationally as one of the best, and was cursed by the students under it as Deserving Of Being Burnt With Our Homework, Notes and Test Paper As Fuel, Since The World Is Running Out of Oil Anyway.  
  
It also had the unfortunate habit of severely pissing off the author, who currently pities the Gundam boys, although they wouldn't have to go through this if the idea hadn't been dangled in front of her by her muse, wrapped in pretty paper and drenched in chwava.  
  
So ANYWAY, the scientists decided to send the boys to Singapore, and they scattered to send highly anonymous emails to their respective pilots.  
  
Not more than a day after they received the messages, the boys were on a shuttle, bound for Singapore, the tiny island somewhere in Southeast Asia.   
  
(And since the author is studying Geography right now, Singapore is on the tip of the peninsular Malaysia, too damn close to the Equator for everyone's liking, meaning it has a - uh - tropical climate, is hot and humid, and is likely to have mangrove and tropical rainforests, if it actually had the space for forests. As a matter of fact, it does have mangrove and tropical rainforests. Go figure. It doesn't have any remarkable landforms though, or even a proper river, so screw Geog and let's get on with this ridiculous fic.)  
  
***  
  
"So...this is to be our place for the next few months?" Wufei eyed the dormitory critically. It wasn't too bad, actually, when you got right down to it. At least it was clean.  
  
There were five beds in the room, one for each of them, a medium sized table and two closets - the boarding house administration hadn't been able to find a closet large enough to fit all their clothes. It wasn't that they had a lot of clothes - the closets were just really tiny. Other than a bathroom, the rest of the room was empty.   
  
"Mmhm," Quatre nodded. "We'll be here for around eight months."  
  
"Eight months? That's pretty long. Did the scientists mention why we're here for such a long time?" Duo asked. He wasn't particularly excited at the prospect of being at a school for six whole months.   
  
Quatre shook his head. "All they said was that they were checking something out, but it wasn't confirmed. They just wanted us around, just in case it was urgent and they needed us fast."  
  
They didn't mention it, but all of them felt that there was something wrong with the reasoning. They got around pretty quickly via their Gundams, but they figured the scientists had their own reasons.   
  
Heero threw his bag onto his bed. It made a satisfying 'fwump' sound, and he unzipped the bag and unpacked his stuff. There wasn't really much. Just a few changes of clothes, some random stuff, and his laptop. He started packing away his stuff. The rest followed suit, and soon the room was a flurry of activity, what with people walking around. Then, there was a tap on the door, and a really friendly lady walked in. Two burly men stumbled in, each carrying a huge box. They left in a hurry, massaging their arm muscles.  
  
The boys stopped whatever they were doing (which was packing), and turned their attention on the lady and the boxes.   
  
"Hi boys," she greeted them cheerily. "I hope you're comfortable in this room. Well, we've brought up your books and uniforms, and you're expected to report to the school tomorrow. Just a few simple rules that have to be followed in this boarding house; lights have to be out by 11 pm, there's a 7 pm curfew. Dinner is served at around 6:30, but you can choose to eat anytime until 8 pm, when the canteen closes. You've seen the study, yes? You can either choose to either do your work in there, with the other students, or do your work here. I think that's about all. Is there anything you would like to clarify?"  
  
They shook their heads.  
  
"In that case, I'll leave you then. Have a nice day, boys."  
  
She left, and closed the door, but that's another minor detail. The major detail was that all the boy's attention was now focused on the boxes. If stares had heat, the boxes would have spontaneously combust. Finally, Duo asked in a suspicious tone, "Are the boxes really that heavy?"  
  
"Would you like to try?" Trowa asked mildly.   
  
Duo decided against answering the question. "But what can be in them?"  
  
Heero got up, located his penknife, slit the layers of masking tape, and the cardboard boxes burst open to reveal...  
  
a hell lotta books.  
  
Heero lifted out the first book. It was blue, quite thick, and was written by this person called Marianne Chong. Yes, you got it, it was Aspects of Physical Geography. (Cue overdramatic, really quite useless music of the DUN DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN variety).  
  
Heero raised an eyebrow at it. "Geography?"  
  
Quatre leaned over, withdrew the other four identical books and passed them around. He revealed another layer of books. They were blue, again. He blinked at the words, finding them vaguely familiar. And then, realization fell like a thunderbolt from Zeus, and he said quietly, "...guys, we're learning Chinese."  
  
Wufei sat bolt upright, Trowa arched an eyebrow, Duo jumped up and went over to see, and Heero, uh, Heero...merely stared at Quatre.   
  
Duo squinted at the squiggly characters at the top of the book, and could barely understand it.  
  
"This is weird," he said. "I should be able to understand this. I mean, we all should. We all underwent the same language training. We have the basic, fine, not so basic, fundamentals of almost every language in the worlds, including Sindarin and Quenya, and those are not even proper languages."  
  
Wufei snatched the book over. "That's because it's called Chinese calligraphy. It's not meant to be decipherable."  
  
(Here, the author must add that she is exaggerating facts. Chinese calligraphy is a highly refined and respected art. Unfortunately, a highly refined and respected art that also happens to have to have the calligrapher sometimes doing it so well that it turns out intelligible. That'll be called Cao Zi, or grass words. Don't ask me. Otherwise, it's not really that bad - some are really clear. And the book? It's readable. I was EXAGGERATING.)  
  
"Zhong Xue Gao Ji Hua Wen. Secondary School Higher Chinese, basically."  
  
"HIGHER Chinese?" Duo gaped. "Why must we even take Chinese?"  
  
Heero replied, "I've heard that the Singaporean syllabus requires every student to take a second language. For the locals, it is their mother tongue, namely either Chinese, Malay or Indian. Overseas students are also required to take a second language, and for some reason, it's always Chinese that they have to take. Besides, it shouldn't be too difficult." He reached into the box and withdrew a book as well.  
  
Quatre raised his head from where he was trying to read the first page. "Not too difficult?" He said wryly.   
  
Trowa ignored them and took out another set of books identical to the Chinese textbooks. He quickly threw them around. It appeared that those were the second parts. Then, there were books that were around half the size of the Chinese textbook. It transpired that they were the Chinese handbooks, which supposedly aided students in their studies.  
  
(The author has now given up all hope of studying. She is too caught up with this damned thing. Wah. If I fail, it'll all be your fault, Consellariel. [ Relax. You won't fail. ] Oh, really? You want to bet? [ Uh, maybe not. ^^" ])  
  
Finally, at around 5 in the evening, they had gotten through the whole pile of books. The reason why they had taken such a long time was because they had flipped through every book they came across. Finally, though, they had cleared all the books away, before finding five sets of their school uniforms for each of them at the bottom of the second box, wrapped in plastic and smelling very plasticy. And cardboardy. Never mind. They took them out, unwrapped the plastic and hung them out. They'd seen better, but they'd had clothes in a worse state.  
  
For some inexplicable reason, although they would never have admitted it, they began to feel just a teensy weensy bit excited about going to school again - not to mention apprehensive.  
  
***  
  
The next six months were a whirlwind of studying for tests, doing piles of homework, and copying the homework from their classmates in the morning. The boys weren't bad students to begin with, so settling into the whole gruelling task of studying wasn't so difficult. They were also quite popular in the class as good students and excellent sportsmen - as well as their separate identities - but nobody had ever come close enough to them to find out exactly who they were. They meant it to stay that way, as well.  
  
The work had kept them busy that they had almost forgotten about the thing the scientists were checking out. Almost, I said, almost. But then again, any fleeting thought they gave over to it was quickly pushed away by the thought of the exams.  
  
Yes, the EOYs. Also known as end-of-years. Or just simply, exams. For some odd reason nobody could really explain, they caused an influx of students visiting fast food restaurants with open textbooks in front of them, but interestingly enough, they never really were studying. Some SMS-ed their friends, some chatted to their friends sitting opposite them, and still some made out, but very few actually got anything done. ANYWAY.  
  
The boys decided to study in the school library. (Wise choice, boys.) So everyday after school, they trooped off to the library and entered the blissfully air-conditioned area with books and files in hand. They often got distracted, especially Duo, but let it be known that they actually got some studying done, 'some' being the operative word here.  
  
So, just a week before the exams started, they moved to their own rooms, and in various positions on the floor, chair, table or bed, feverishly swallowed copious amounts of information.   
  
On this particular Friday afternoon, we see our favourite boys scattered around the room as normal, Heero and Duo hogging the table with their books. Heero was giving Duo a crash-course in Geography, the latter having succeeded in slacking through every Geography class.   
  
"So you see, the water slacks here, " Heero said, drawing tiny arrows in the diagram of convex and concave banks, "But it erodes the bank here, and eventually causes a slip-off slope."  
  
Duo looked blank. "But why 'slip-off'?'"  
  
Trowa looked up from where he was lying on the carpet, digesting facts about Animal Nutrition (known basically as 'Digestion', or which enzymes break down your lunch, and how. A very fun topic to study during dinner, but people tend to lose their appetites) and commented wryly, "Duo, we'd all like to know why. Just remember it's a slope - ignore the 'slip-off' bit. It's just baggage."  
  
"Ah." Duo didn't look very convinced, but he figured it was too close to the exams to argue.  
  
Quatre looked up from the Mathematics file he was poring over, his brow creased. "Tro? Come over and explain how the unconventional algorithms work again?"  
  
Trowa sighed, got up and joined Quatre on the bed.  
  
And all this while, anti-social Wufei was barricaded in the bathroom, meditating. He did not believe in last minute studying, and thus had finished all his studying two weeks ago. He spent the rest of his time meditating, going through his work in his head. (And all the author has to say is 0.o)  
  
***  
  
"YEEEEEEEEEEEES!"  
  
Trying to look like they didn't know the boy with the foot-long braid and the bouncing blonde-headed boy, Heero, Trowa and Wufei walked away as quickly as it was humanly possible.  
  
"EXAMS ARE OVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER~"  
  
"Hey, Duo, wanna go to KAP?" [ KAP is the location of a branch of McDonalds, rather popular with the students of close to ten schools, including my own. 'Nuff said. ]  
  
"Sure!" he grinned happily. "Heero, Tro, Fei, Quatre - wanna come along?"  
  
Quatre, pretty big blue eyes widened in joy, nodded. Heero, Trowa and Wufei were too far away, their attempts to put a lot of distance between themselves having succeeded, so Duo and Quatre, taking that as a decidedly vehement 'NO', left.  
  
***  
  
[ And because I'm lazy and all, I shall merely say: A FEW HOURS LATER... ]  
  
Duo and Quatre, still rather high from the post-exam partying and from all the fries dipped into funnily disgusting sauce mixtures like BBQ sauce, chilli and mayonnaise, pushed the door of their hostel room open.  
  
...and found the other three boys in doing things that literally made their laughter die on their lips.  
  
Trowa was the calmest of the three, and HE was sitting cross-on his bed, polishing his daggers and flinging them loosely at the corkboard hung on the wall that was becoming very, very shredded.  
  
Wufei was dangerously practicing with his katana. It wasn't sheathed. Every stroke was filled with energy fuelled by anger, anger that blazed furiously in his coal-black eyes.  
  
Heero was hunched over his laptop, jabbing at the keys. A closer look revealed that he was modifying their school files.  
  
The silence, save for the jabbing of keys and the occasionally 'whing-bam' as a dagger cut through the air and stuck itself into the corkboard, was oppressing. And highly flammable.   
  
"Uh, guys?" Quatre started timidly. "Mind telling us what's wrong?"  
  
For a moment, nothing changed in the tableaux.  
  
Then...  
  
"The damnable scientists..."  
  
"Sent us here..."  
  
"For no..."  
  
"Fucking..."  
  
"REASON AT ALL."  
  
"That thing they were checking out?"  
  
"Doesn't. Bloody. Exist."  
  
You could have heard a pin drop onto a thickly woven carpet made out of camel hide.  
  
- fin -  
  
A/N: Alright, that was very badly written. I leave what happens to the scientists to your imagination.  
  
I know a lot of things cannot happen in this fic, because Heero would have checked out what was going on, because they really wouldn't have had the patience to wait for the scientists to tell them something, but...   
  
Heh. That's why this is called FANFICTION.  
  
Speaking of which, I started this a month ago or so, before I actually took my exams (as you can see from my random notes in the fic itself), but now I've gotten my results back. If I wanted you to know, you would know by now. Let's just say I did fine. 


End file.
